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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24690088">starting fires (for heaven's sake)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/jdphoenix/pseuds/jdphoenix'>jdphoenix</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon, Canon Divergence - Episode: s03e10 Maveth, F/M, Season/Series 05, Time Travel</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 08:20:36</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,708</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24690088</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/jdphoenix/pseuds/jdphoenix</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>There's really no one Grant's expecting to see on Maveth less than Simmons.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Jemma Simmons/Grant Ward</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>92</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>starting fires (for heaven's sake)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Title from "sinners" by Lauren Aquilina.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Grant’s been in tighter spots than this before. He’s only stranded on an alien planet with a timer counting down to his one and only shot at getting home, handcuffed and being dragged around by a man he’s betrayed more times than he can count whose girlfriend he also happened to kill within the last seventy-two hours. So it’s not the <em>worst</em> position he’s ever been in.</p><p>Probably.</p><p>“Move.” Coulson gives him a little shove, forcing him to either take that next step or go head-first down the sloping sand. In other circumstances, it’d be easy. But in other circumstances his hands wouldn’t be tied and he wouldn’t have two bullet holes in his arms that seem to attract sand like magnets.</p><p>He toboggans down the slope, lifting his shoulders to try and keep his arms in as much as possible. It robs him of what little control he might have but it also means less sand stabbing at his muscles like tiny needles. Since he doesn’t entirely protect his arms and he hits every rock on the way, it’s a waste of effort that leaves him on his knees.</p><p>Coulson slides gracefully down right behind him. He blinks once—the drop plus his head wound isn’t a great combination—but that’s all before he waves his gun again. “Up. We’ve got a long way to go.”</p><p>“Do we?” Truthfully Grant has no idea what Coulson thinks he’s doing here.</p><p>Option A: They go through the portal and Malick’s men shoot and/or capture Coulson on sight and Grant gets the medical care he’s really looking forward to.</p><p>Option B: SHIELD has overpowered Malick’s people and Grant gets shot from several angles all at once and dies right there.</p><p>Unless Coulson’s plan here is to bring Grant within inches of home and either kill him or strand him—both of which seem a little dark for a die hard white hat like him—this just doesn’t make any sense. Why go to all the trouble of dragging him across an alien desert? Why come <em>at all</em> for that matter?</p><p>That’s easy. Grant’s finally crossed a line so terrible it’s driven Coulson to some good old-fashioned revenge. Only trouble is, he’s too much of a soft touch to follow through once the opportunity presented itself. Now he’s just dragging Grant along because he doesn’t know <em>what</em> to do with him.</p><p>It’s almost disappointing to be honest. He thought Coulson had more follow through than that.</p><p>Of course, follow through like Grant’s isn’t always to be desired.</p><p>As if he’s reading his thoughts and wants to prove himself, Coulson grabs Grant by the collar before he can step into the shadow of a rock formation. He hauls him back and sends him sprawling in the sand—another hard landing, courtesy of his handcuffs—where he can see him and the rock formation both.</p><p>“Come out from there,” he barks, “or I’ll shoot your boss here.”</p><p>“They’re Malick’s men,” Grant mutters. “They don’t give a damn about me.”</p><p>There’s a pause, just long enough for Grant to doubt his own instincts as well as Coulson’s, and then a dark shape detaches itself from the far side of the nearest rock. Despite what he said, Grant was figuring it <em>was</em> one of Malick’s guys hiding out over there—who else could it be? Especially outfitted in that desert camo that not even Fitz got to wear.</p><p>“Simmons?” Coulson asks, nearly dropping his gun in his shock. Grant’s right there with him, he can’t even take advantage of the opportunity Coulson’s shock presents.</p><p>She tips her head on a weak smile. “Hello, sir. I imagine you’re rather confused right about now.”</p><p>“No.” Coulson’s voice is somehow harder than it was when he was ordering Grant around like a dog. He lifts the gun with the smooth practice of a veteran agent. “You’re Death. The thing that tormented the real Simmons while she was here.”</p><p>It’s really the only explanation and one Grant reached even faster than Coulson did. Coulson likely knows how terrified of this place she is and that she’d never come here willingly, while Grant knows the easy way she stepped out from behind that rock and the spot that utility belt rests on her hip should be impossible after the day she’s had. So it’s kind of surprising that the Inhuman or hallucination or whatever she is winces like she hadn’t thought of that.</p><p>“Ah. Right. That is the most logical explanation for my being here, isn’t it?” She glances at Grant and then over her shoulder in the direction of the portal. “I’m afraid you really don’t have the time for me to explain. You’ll barely make it to the portal as is.”</p><p>“And I’m sure you’re planning on coming along.”</p><p>“No. I have my own way home.”</p><p>She looks at Grant again and he has the weirdest feeling that he’s wrong. The Inhuman, when it was pretending to be Daniels, gave off an air of otherness. It was almost like being around Lorelei; it was something that looked like a human, talked like a human … but absolutely wasn’t. Whoever or whatever this is, she’s not giving off that eerie vibe. If Grant didn’t know better, he’d think she <em>was</em> Simmons.</p><p>She finally tears her eyes away from him. “I’ll be taking Ward with me, I’m afraid. I’m no happier about it than you are, trust me.”</p><p>“You think I’m just gonna hand over my prisoner?”</p><p>“No.” It’s right then Grant sees Coulson’s mistake. He might not believe this thing is the real Simmons, but on some level he buys the illusion enough he hasn’t made her show her hands. “If you head over that next ridge, you’ll make it,” she says. “But you do have to hurry.”</p><p>Before Coulson can respond, she drops a smoke grenade. As the cloud expands, Grant gets his feet under him. Coulson fires off a shot. A hand—small, feminine—grips Grant by the elbow, close enough to the bullet hole in that arm he has to bite back a grunt of pain. But his feet aren’t hurting and they want to live, enough they follow where the fake Simmons leads.</p><p>She hugs the rocks tight for cover but keeps him going towards the ridge.</p><p>“Not that I want to stick around,” he gasps between sharp stabs of pain, “but shouldn’t we be trying to go somewhere Coulson won’t?”</p><p>“No. Because we need Coulson to go back to Earth and if we run off in another direction he might try to track you.”</p><p>“Oh, <em>we</em> do, do we?” he asks. He was wrong about his feet. The sand shifted out from beneath him during their initial sprint and one of his feet twisted wrong. On its own, it was something he could’ve walked off, but so soon after his landing on that slope? His ankle’s not thanking him.</p><p>“I didn’t come here to save you and doom Coulson.”</p><p>“Why do you care? He’s SHIELD. <em>Really</em> SHIELD. Captain America’s biggest fan, SHIELD. Not that you know who that is-”</p><p>“I am <em>not</em> Hive!” she shrieks, dragging them both to a stop. “I am the real, genuine Jemma Simmons and I traveled back in time to save your miserable life so how about you start showing some gratitude and help me make sure Coulson reaches the portal in time?!”</p><p>Emotion grips him by the throat. Simmons? The <em>real</em> Simmons? The one he left bandaged and bruising in the care of a psychopath?</p><p>A bullet ricochets off the sand behind Grant—nice of Coulson to aim for him instead of the Simmons he thinks is the source of all Hydra.</p><p>“You promise you’ll get me out of here?” he asks.</p><p>“If I don’t, then this will all have been for nothing.”</p><p>With Coulson bearing down on them, it’s as good as a yes. Grant sprints up the ridge, ignoring the pain in his ankle and how his shoulders scream with every violent twist it takes to keep his balance. Simmons is right there with him and with bullets striking all around, neither of them slows down at the top. They both go hurtling over and down like Jack and Jill. Thankfully, both their heads make it through intact. Grant knows because Simmons’ is in good enough shape for her to yell, “<em>Fitz!</em>” at the top of her lungs and his is okay to ring from the sound so close.</p><p>He looks up. Sees the portal. Sees the not-astronaut with a boulder big enough to crush a skull in his hands. Sees his shock and his mouth forming <em>Jemma?</em> just before Fitz rolls into him and knocks his feet out from under him. The boulder hits the ground and the two grapple in the sand.</p><p>“Fitz.” Simmons moves to stand but Grant catches her back by her sleeve, keeping her in the hollow where ridge meets open plain with him.</p><p>Above them, sand is raining down. Coulson’s here and with a weapon and his hands untied, he’s got a better chance than either of them of helping.</p><p>Sure enough, he slides down next to them and pins them both with a look. “Don’t move.” Then he goes racing across the sand to help Fitz.</p><p>Simmons watches for a moment before lifting her wrist. “We’ll have to hope that works out better than it did the first time.”</p><p>His tug on her sleeve revealed a big, bulky device attached to it. Kind of like one of the wrist tablets some of the comms agents wear, but with more bells and whistles.</p><p>“How’d it go the first time?” he asks.</p><p>“Coulson crushed your chest with his cybernetic hand and Hive possessed your corpse in order to return to Earth.”</p><p>Grant nods. “Yeah, let’s hope it goes better.”</p><p>She laces her arm through his, jostling his injury for about the hundredth time. “You’ll want to breathe out,” she cautions him. “It makes the landing easier if you can breathe in right away.”</p><p>“Does it?”</p><p>She slams the big red button on the side of the device and reality slams in around them from all sides. Sand and rocks and the portal and moons and stars, all of it waterfalling right into them but there’s no pain, no impact, only the pressure like they just became the center of a black hole. It all lasts maybe a second, just long enough for him to wonder why the fuck she told him to empty his lungs, he needs <em>air</em>, and then reality opens up all at once and there air is all around them, filling up the dingy, concrete room that is definitely not Maveth.</p><p>He drags in a breath and beside him Simmons does the same.</p><p>“Where are we?” The room they’re in looks like a bomb hit it. Jagged pieces of metal pierce scarred and charred walls, debris is scattered in the corners. “Or when, I guess,” he adds, remembering what she said about time travel.</p><p>“Welcome to 2018. We’re in the Lighthouse, a Cold War era SHIELD base meant to act as an ark in case of nuclear war. And you’ll want to watch that.”</p><p>The instruction pulls his attention towards her just in time to realize he’s about to stand up into a floating metal orb. It doesn’t escape his notice that the placement puts it smack dab at the center of the explosion.</p><p>Since the whole 2018 thing makes his head feel kind of loose—or maybe that’s all the blood loss—he asks, “What is it?”</p><p>“What you’re seeing is a containment device for a rift in the universe.” She lifts her arm and the device she’s got half-off. “It powers this.”</p><p>He looks her up and down, his eyes lingering on the spots where he knows he left the deepest scars. “You blew a hole in the universe to save <em>me</em>?” The idea only deepens the nausea that comes with the hours of screaming pain, but in a weirdly good way. Like his body doesn’t quite know what to do with what he’s feeling but it doesn’t hate it either.</p><p>She scoffs with just as much disbelief as he’s got going. “No. The rift was the result of sabotage. I only made use of it.”</p><p>Well, that makes more sense. But she still <em>used</em> it, apparently, to save him. “Why?”</p><p>A softness he can’t put a name to erases the derision on her face. “Because I think you might be the key to saving the future.”</p><p>Grant needs to pause for a second here because … <em>what?</em> “Okaaaaaay,” he says slowly. It’s hardly the first time he’s been given a mission to save countless lives, but that still doesn’t explain why a woman he tortured less than sixteen hours ago is coming to him for help or why SHIELD would sink so low. “Lemme guess, someone on the team went off the reservation and you need me to put a bullet in them because you can’t.”</p><p>“No!” She says it fast enough, but her immediate introspection says he might be right. “The rest of the team and I, we’re trapped in a self-fulfilling time loop. We travel to the future, learn of an impending global disaster after it’s occurred, return to the past, see the disaster come to pass and potentially even play a role in it doing so, and the cycle continues. Fitz theorized that the way to break the loop might lie in the past rather than the present or future.”</p><p>She drops her time travel doohickey and heads for the rickety stairs. Grant follows.</p><p>“Great,” he says, “you brought me here so I could be trapped with the rest of you. How kind.”</p><p>She whirls on the last step, putting herself on solid concrete and leaving him on unsteady metal. More of her generosity.</p><p>“That is not why-” She purses her lips. “I brought you here in hopes that your presence and actions might be enough to shift the timeline. And you might recall that I <em>saved your life</em>.”</p><p>“Says you.”</p><p>An angry flush races up her neck. “I-”</p><p>The stair beneath Grant doesn’t feel so steady all of a sudden. He steps off quickly, cuffed hands wrapping around her arm to hold him in her personal space. He sighs as the warped metal behind him creaks and groans.</p><p>With some effort he uncurls his fingers to lift his hands between them. “How about we find someone to get these off me?”</p><p>Simmons gulps and steps back. “Yes. That’s a good idea. Daisy should be able to.”</p><p>“Daisy?” he asks, trailing her out the door.</p><p>Outside there’s more concrete. It reminds him a little of that hole in the ground Coulson was operating out of last year, only more depressing.</p><p>Instead of answering the question he asked, Simmons answers a few he didn’t. This base is all that’s gonna be left after the future disaster that, get ready for this, destroys the planet. Just breaks it to pieces like an egg. He is <em>so</em> glad he’s alive for this.</p><p>She’s just getting started on the aliens who take over—because the whole planet dying isn’t bad enough, oh no—when she stops dead in her tracks. Skye and Morse are up ahead, talking seriously about something. Simmons’ sudden stop attracts their attention.</p><p>“Bobbi?” she breathes.</p><p>“Oh, you have <em>got</em> to be kidding me!” Skye yells as they both begin stalking closer with a clear intent to kill.</p><p>“You might want to get behind me.” </p><p>“You didn’t tell anyone about your plan, did you?” he asks while doing just that.</p><p>“I told you, you died on Maveth by Coulson’s hand. The me of this timeline likely wouldn’t have had the same idea.”</p><p>“That wasn’t an answer.”</p><p>She hums low in her throat but that’s all she has time for as Skye and Morse are close enough now to overhear them.</p><p>“I can’t believe I let him <em>cut into my brain</em> and we’re still getting this crap,” Skye grouses.</p><p>“Daisy-” Simmons begins.</p><p>Skye lifts a hand almost carelessly and a wave hits Simmons so hard Grant has to brace himself on his good foot to keep them both from going down.</p><p>“Daisy!” Simmons yells through the vibrations. “<em>Stop!</em>”</p><p>Skye does, but only to look at her hand like it’s betrayed her. “Why is it not working?”</p><p>“Maybe it’s like using antibacterial soap,” Morse suggests. “With the lock on the rift, only the strongest make it through.”</p><p>Skye groans.</p><p>“We’re not from another dimension,” Simmons says. Her voice is pitched a little loud but as Grant’s ears are ringing too, he doesn’t mind. “This is the real Ward. I went back in time for him.”</p><p>Skye and Morse exchange a look. “Uh huh,” Morse says, unholstering her gun. “Sure you did.”</p><p>Not that Simmons would believe it but after she saved him back on Maveth, he was willing to go along with her way of doing things for a while. Now that her way is about to get them both shot, he thinks it’s time he fall back on more tactically advantageous methods.</p><p>She’s got another of those smoke bombs on her belt. He can’t throw it far, but luckily everyone’s close enough in this tight little hallway it doesn’t much matter.</p><p>Simmons has the good sense to grab him when the smoke starts decreasing visibility. He drags her to one side, out of the way of Morse’s wild aim. His back slams into the wall and Simmons slams into his chest, knocking her forehead on his chin. He shuffles his hands awkwardly between them until he can grab hers.</p><p>“Keep quiet. Grab Skye,” he whispers. Then he’s running, pulling her along with him.</p><p>All of it takes maybe two seconds, just long enough for Skye to throw up a burst of air just big enough she sees him coming. He knocks her off-balance with a kick and the smoke billows back in.</p><p>Morse is coughing, calling her name. Grant swings past Skye, extends his arms so Simmons has plenty of room and won’t drag him down. A kick to the head silences Morse just as Simmons drags at his hand. She’s got Skye.</p><p>Seconds later they’re in a dark storage closet, far enough from that other hallway it won’t be the first place anyone looks, but not so far Skye realizes she’s holding the wrong hand before Grant takes her sidearm off her.</p><p>“Don’t,” he warns.</p><p>Skye looks from him to her hip and back then sits heavily on one of the boxes piled up on the floor. “Great. And you guys can touch stuff now too. Fan-frikkin-tastic.”</p><p>“Daisy,” Simmons says, kneeling in front of her—too close. Grant toes at her shin until she scoots to one side. It’s not a lot of distance, but it’s better. “I know this is hard to believe given what you’ve seen but I assure you, he <em>is</em> the real Ward and I did travel back in time for him.”</p><p>Some of that earlier feeling scratches at Grant’s throat again. As he doesn’t have time right now for the existential crisis of being wanted, he swallows past it and grips the gun a little tighter.</p><p>“We are the people you know,” Simmons says. Her heartfelt expression shutters on the final words. “More or less.”</p><p>“Oh, are you?” Skye—or Daisy or whatever her name is—mocks.</p><p>“Yes,” Simmons says firmly, but not without reservation.</p><p>“What do you think we are?” Grant asks, figuring that’s a quicker way to end this argument. Prove they’re not that and they’re good.</p><p>Skye waves a hand at them. “You’re nightmares. From the rift.”</p><p>Simmons frowns in confusion. “Well, that’s no reason to shoot us!”</p><p>That obviously confuses Daisy just as much. Grant toes Simmons’ leg again.</p><p>“What do you mean ‘nightmares’?” he asks.</p><p>When she answers—after a long, assessing pause—Skye’s not so sure of herself anymore. That’s good. “The rift. It makes phantoms, visions of our worst fears. We shoot them—or quake them or hit them hard enough—and they disappear. Or you’re <em>supposed</em> to.”</p><p>Somehow the genius in the room is the one having the hardest time with that information. Grant’s not sure why; it’s not much crazier than “I’m from the future, come with me if you want to live” and he handled that just fine. But since she seems out of the conversation for the moment he says, “Me I get. I’m sure I’ll haunt the team’s nightmares for the rest of your lives-”</p><p>Skye scowls up at him.</p><p>“-but why don’t you believe she’s the real deal? Other than that she’s with me?”</p><p>Skye rolls her eyes. “Because she’s <em>not</em>.”</p><p>“I’ve changed the timeline,” Simmons says softly. It’s clearly to herself. She thins her lips and swallows down her emotions, same as she always does, before smiling weakly at them both. “By bringing you to the future, I altered the timeline. I told you Hive possessed your corpse. Preventing him from doing so must have altered my own personal timeline drastically enough I’m unrecognizable to the others as I am now.”</p><p>That makes sense, he guesses. If the Inhuman rode his corpse back to Earth, SHIELD would’ve done everything in their power to fight him. If he didn’t come back at all, things would’ve changed.</p><p>Skye is eyeing Simmons critically, torn between doubt and greater doubt over what she’s saying. As it is, she’s not prepared for Simmons to extend a hand to her.</p><p>“Here. You can use your powers, quake my body and feel that I’m made of flesh and bone. I’m not some illusion.” She quirks a smile. “You, ah, did the same when we were running from robot replicas of ourselves.”</p><p>Skye remains frozen for a long second before taking Simmons’ hand. “That … did not happen.” But she does pull Simmons slowly into her arms.</p><p>A low sound ripples across the floor, barely within Grant’s hearing, and Skye’s arm tightens around Simmons’ back.</p><p>“It’s really you,” she says. “<em>Ohmygosh</em>.” There are actual tears squeezing out of her eyes. All at once she pulls back so she can look Simmons full in the face. “And you can hear me?”</p><p>“Hear you?” Simmons echoes. Realization dawns. “That bloody implant. Fitz didn’t remove it?”</p><p>“Remove it? It was <em>wrapped around your brain</em>!”</p><p>“Yes, well. He didn’t really consider that in my timeline. But I’m all right. See? I can hear everything you say.”</p><p>“Yeah,” Skye says slowly. She strokes Simmons’ hair back. “You’re all right.”</p><p>Grant clears his throat, drawing their attention to him. “Listen, as much as I’m loving this reunion, I grabbed you because Simmons said you could get these off.”</p><p>The joy on Skye’s face fades. “You did?” she asks. Simmons, not him. “And did you say you <em>traveled back in time</em> to <em>save him</em>?”</p><p>“Yes. I can explain that. But Ward is in need of medical care, which <em>will</em> be easier if his arms are free.”</p><p>“Easier for him to strangle you too,” Skye mutters. She’s not happy about the plan, but when Grant returns the gun she’s at least open to the idea.</p><p>Finally free, he takes a seat on one of the boxes and Simmons digs out a first aid kit and gets to work. Their conversation serves as the perfect anchor to keep him focused against the pain radiating up and down both his arms.</p><p>“You seemed surprised by the time travel,” Simmons says while she works. “Am I to understand you didn’t travel to the future in this timeline?”</p><p>“No, we definitely did. Monolith, Lighthouse, Kree, all that horrible stuff.”</p><p>Simmons nods. It sounds like the story she told him.</p><p>“You went with us?” Skye asks. “In yours?”</p><p>“Yes, why wouldn’t I have?” She pauses in the midst of cleaning sand out of Grant’s arm, giving him a chance to breathe. “Was I the one Enoch left behind?”</p><p>“No, he left Fitz.”</p><p>“Same for us. Poor Fitz.”</p><p>“Yeah. He should’ve left you.” She sounds seriously annoyed he didn’t. Since when does Skye not want Simmons around?</p><p>“Oh, Skye. Being enslaved by Kasius wasn’t the worst thing. I had three square meals a day, better than Maveth.”</p><p><em>Enslaved?</em> Grant flexes the hand not connected to the arm she’s currently working on. Whoever this Kasius guy is, Grant doesn’t care what timeline they’re in, he’s breaking his skull.</p><p>Simmons’ chipper attitude is a put-on, and one no one seems to be buying, not even her. Her lip quivers and Grant moves his hand—out of Skye’s sight of course—slightly to the left so it can rest against her hip. The faint show of comfort gets a surprised smile out of her.</p><p>“You said,” Skye says slowly, “that someone possessed Ward’s body. Was that Alveus?”</p><p>“Alveus? Is that what the Inhuman from Maveth called himself?” Simmons rolls her eyes. “And I thought he couldn’t be more pretentious.”</p><p>“So he did make it back,” Grant says, increasing the pressure on Simmons’ hip. She didn’t make that leap before. Now he’s made it for her, she pales.</p><p>“Fitz? No, you said Enoch left him. Coulson?” She’s near frantic already and Skye answers quickly.</p><p>“He’s fine.” She smiles. “He said Alveus made him see some vision of you on the planet taking Ward. I guess it was real.”</p><p>“I’m afraid so. Then how did he-” She sinks slowly down onto her heels. “Will. He was still in Will’s body when he returned.”</p><p>“Yeah,” Skye says sympathetically.</p><p>Grant could kick himself. Not that it’s his fault—how was he supposed to know when getting even the tiniest piece of info out of Simmons was literally like pulling teeth—but Simmons facing an Inhuman wearing her boyfriend’s face <em>while</em> suffering the after-effects of torture? He maybe feels a little sympathy there. Especially with these two bullet holes and knowing May’s likely somewhere in this base.</p><p>“So you didn’t leave SHIELD?” Skye asks after giving Simmons a moment. “After killing Alveus?”</p><p>“Leave? <em>Me?</em>” Simmons almost laughs. “Wait, did you say <em>I</em> killed Hive?”</p><p>“Yeah. There was this Inhuman, Dwight Frye, being near other Inhumans made him sick. You figured out how to give Hive his powers. His parasites died off and soon he did too. And then you left.”</p><p>“Yes. That makes sense.” Simmons sits up to grab the suture kit from the box. “And Enoch brought me back?”</p><p>“He said you were ‘necessary to saving the future.’”</p><p>“Maybe I am.” She gives Grant a smile. “I did bring Ward, after all.”</p><p>“Yeah.” Skye’s not happy about that. The new and improved Simmons she’s a fan of, but still not him. “Listen, I should probably tell Bobbi I’m not dead. And tell the others you’re—you. It’d probably help if you were-”</p><p>“I’m quite all right here. Ward still needs his other arm seen to.” She gives Skye a reassuring smile over her shoulder. “As you didn’t have to deal with the robot imposters, I imagine you didn’t have the Framework? Suffice to say, we both had to get over our lingering hatred of Ward to make it through that. I’m sure I’ll be fine.”</p><p>She goes right back to stitching up Grant’s arm, leaving Skye to stare impotently down at her. Finally she reaches for her. Not to pull her up—though Grant braces himself for it since there’s a needle in his skin still—but to stuff the gun in the back of Simmons’ pants.</p><p>“She had better be,” she warns and, finally, leaves them alone.</p><p>Grant watches Simmons work. It’s almost like old times, her patching him up after a mission gone sideways. But they didn’t travel back in time, they came forward, and it wasn’t any of their past that was rewritten.</p><p>“You ‘got over’ your hatred?” he asks softly.</p><p>“Don’t get too excited,” she says while pulling the last stitch tight. “I only learned to tolerate you. And Daisy didn’t go through that at all, so she still hates you enough for the both of us.”</p><p><em>But you don’t</em>, he doesn’t say. Ten months ago—from his perspective—Simmons was trying to kill him with a splinter bomb in the back. Just a few hours ago he was listening to her scream and wondering why it didn’t make him feel any better. And now, somehow, she got over all of that shit well enough she’s putting all her hopes for the future on him. God only knows why.</p><p>He catches her wrist before she can move away. “Why me? The truth. Why do you think I can change things?”</p><p>“I told you. I’m hoping the key to escaping the loop lies in the past. By introducing an expected variable into the equation, it might be able to set things off-balance sufficiently-”</p><p>He squeezes, cutting her off. “No. You were surprised that things had changed enough to be noticeable. And you <em>weren’t</em> surprised that Skye knew about the loop. If it was just about bringing someone in from outside, you would’ve picked someone else, like-”</p><p>He stops himself before he can say Daniels’ name, but she hears it anyway. She sinks to the floor, twisting her knees out from under herself so she can sit properly.</p><p>“I thought about it. I <em>wanted</em> to save him. But I ultimately realized that my best chance lay with you and that if I were unsuccessful, I didn’t want to bring Will back to Earth just to watch it die.”</p><p>She’s shaking and Grant finds himself sliding off the box to join her on the cold stone floor. When he lays his hand over hers, she looks at him like she forgot he was even in the room.</p><p>“Why am I your best shot?” he asks softly.</p><p>She drags in a shaky breath. “When the rift opened, it wasn’t what Daisy said. In my timeline, the rift brought through actual people. Still nightmares, but it had sifted through the infinite possibilities of the multiverse to find realities where those nightmares were <em>real</em>. It brought Hive, May’s husband, Daisy’s parents, several of you.”</p><p>“Why am I not surprised?” Like he said, he expects he’ll be haunting their nightmares for years to come. Maybe not hers…</p><p>“There were also versions of ourselves. Some were nightmares, our worst selves, but some were following their enemies, unwilling to let them escape and wreak havoc on another world. One of me had experience with rifts in the fabric of the universe and was instrumental in helping us to heal the rift.”</p><p>“Well, who else?”</p><p>If she even hears Grant’s teasing, she doesn’t respond. “This version of myself counseled the other doubles not to say too much about their realities. We tried to tell them of our issue with the time loop but they were too afraid of altering things for the worse rather than the better. After they had gone, we- well, at that point <em>I</em> cataloged everything we had learned from them, down to the minutest detail, in hopes of discovering some facet of their timelines which might have saved them from winding up in the position we were in.”</p><p>“And you came up with me.” Grant can’t help the incredulity. How the fuck did she land there? “Just me? I’m that big a deal, just me surviving changes the whole course of history?”</p><p>Again, his teasing gets him nowhere. It’s a little disappointing. Even when he was gearing up to see her tortured, falling back on their old flirtation got him <em>something</em>. He’s not loving this new, post-apocalyptic Simmons, even if she did save his life.</p><p>She’s staring at him strangely. If he were the kind of guy who got the creeps, he might have ‘em now. He runs his thumb along her knuckles, reminding her he’s waiting on an answer here.</p><p>“In those other worlds, most of them at any rate, you were… with…” She stops and her tongue darts out to lick her lips. Maybe she’s not completely immune to him.</p><p>“What? Don’t tell me I have to come back to SHIELD-” although it would give him a better angle for crossing off Morse and Hunter- “I don’t know if the whole planet is worth it.”</p><p>She doesn’t so much as crack a smile. “Not exactly. You were with me.”</p><p>He blinks, nonplussed, and she takes that opportunity to lean in and kiss him.</p><p>It’s tentative but firm, which is just so Simmons. She’s self-conscious but never met an experiment she’d half-ass. Her lips are chapped from the sand but warm. Her weight leans into him and he catches her, one hand on her hips, the other in her hair. That strange sort of nausea from earlier is back, coalescing and sharpening into hunger. She’s the first woman he’s kissed in months. All that time mourning Kara, he didn’t think he could want anyone else, enjoy anyone else. Who’d have thought it’d be Simmons?</p><p>She leans back, eyes just a little glassy with desire, cheeks just beginning to pinken, mouth open like she wants more of him. He could see a lot more of that look.</p><p>“I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about … this,” she says. Her hand smooths over the front of his camo and the wrinkles her fist put in it. “I just needed to know whether that was something I could stand to do.”</p><p>“And?”</p><p>Her eyes snap up to meet his. “I could. To save the world, of course,” she adds, pushing herself to her feet.</p><p>Just as she does, the door opens and all of Grant’s least favorite people come rushing in. He lets their anger—over him—and happiness—over a whole and happy Simmons—fade around him and keeps his focus on her.</p><p>After everything he did to her. She should hate him. And yet…</p><p>She glances his way during an explanation to Coulson about her reasoning.</p><p>She traveled back in time for him. To save <em>him</em>. From a death she absolutely felt he deserved at the time.</p><p>No one’s ever done that much, not even John. </p><p>He smiles at her and watches that blush start to return. If loving her is what it’s gonna take to save the world, well, he’s never failed in a mission before.</p><p> </p>
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